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LinuxTag: 40% Growth Over Last Year

Posted by timothy on from the many-happy-returns dept.

LinuxDesktop.it writes "According to this article on pro-linux.de, LinuxTag 2003 was a success: 19500 visitors, up +40% from last year and the number of journalists covering the event increased twofold -- according to pro-linux thanks to the strong signals that the city of Munich switching 14k PCs to Linux sent through Germany. Exhibitors seemed quite satisfied too because they did not expect that the trade show generated that many business contacts since many reputed it as a more community event rather than a 'where .com meets .org' event."

12 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. ssshhh.. let's keep Linux away from the news.. by jkrise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fact is, GNU / Linux has had much success *inspite of* and not because of publicity. When the whole world was watching powerlessly, LinuxTAG got an injunction against SCO in Germany.

    I guess that's how Linux and GNU ought to be promoted / evangelised whatever. Just do it silently, no press releases, no fancy million dollar ad campaigns etc. People already know the value of Linux - no need to trivialise it by aping Microsoft and their methods.

    Peace.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:ssshhh.. let's keep Linux away from the news.. by RoLi · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The opposite is true.

      What is holding Linux back is very often prejudices and unawareness.

      Examples like Munich are very important and already did influence a lot of other organizations.

    2. Re:ssshhh.. let's keep Linux away from the news.. by cloudless.net · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most people never even heard of Linux/GNU, let alone knowing the advantages. Your grandma probably have seen Microsoft advertisement before, but try asking her what GNU is. Unless you want to keep Linux to geeks, true marketing is necessary.

    3. Re:ssshhh.. let's keep Linux away from the news.. by jkrise · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Examples like Munich are very important and already did influence a lot of other organizations.

      If said organizations were holding up the roll out of their Linux plans until Munich decided to get 14,000 seats - they didn't get the proper message after all. Adopting Linux takes a little chutzpah, and a different mindset than the dog-eat-dog attitude prevalent in society now.

      I'd rather waut for the above orgs to get screwed paying for licenses and Service Packs, yet getting inferior code - and switching to Linux, after getting wiser by their own personal experiences.

      Peace.

      --
      If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    4. Re:ssshhh.. let's keep Linux away from the news.. by GammaTau · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most people never even heard of Linux/GNU, let alone knowing the advantages. Your grandma probably have seen Microsoft advertisement before, but try asking her what GNU is. Unless you want to keep Linux to geeks, true marketing is necessary.

      You are correct that there are lots of people who have no idea what Linux or GNU are. But there are also lots of people who have no idea what Microsoft or Windows are (such as my grandma :)). If you sit these people in front of a Windows+IE computer and then in front of a Linux+Mozilla computer, they may not actually notice any difference apart from slightly different icons (which are different between different Windows versions anyway).

  2. So what... by Bio-Hazzard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Linux is a better product and is growing like hell in both the server and client market. So... Anybody who knows anything worthwhile about computers knows about Linux, and anybody who is into computers in a heavy way uses Linux. Old news, but what MS doesnt get is that the growth of Linux is inevitable. It's free (MS cant compete price wise), It's stable (everybody sees what it does and because the codes there somebody's gonna know what wrong and a patch can get produced real quick) and YOU CAN CHANGE IT YOURSELF! (goverments love this).
    It isn't "Will Linux rise?" it's "How long is it gonna take?"

    --

    Give a man a fire, he is warm for a day.
    Set a man on fire, he is warm for the rest of his life.

    1. Re:So what... by GammaTau · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Linux is a better product and is growing like hell in both the server and client market. So... Anybody who knows anything worthwhile about computers knows about Linux, and anybody who is into computers in a heavy way uses Linux.

      How about people (such as you and me) just donated a bit of their time to make the system better instead of praising it like a Borg drone programmed to repeat a message. I guess that might be too much to ask for some people, but I'm asking anyway. The constructive way is to investigate what makes people use other systems (like MS Windows, MacOS, or Solaris) and enhance free systems to comply with the needs of these people.

    2. Re:So what... by ctve · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Good point. And even you can't code, there's plenty else to do. Like checking a few Mozilla bugs are valid and not just down to an old build/dodgy HTML.

      Or installing and using stuff, showing it to their friends and advocating it on their websites etc.

      Or writing documentation for the projects.

      The biggest thing IMO is getting people onboard the OSS software train, and keeping them there.

    3. Re:So what... by Lord+Kholdan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Even if I'm not a Linux user/advocate I'll still throw my spoon into the soup.

      Help people use Linux! Camp the #linuxhelp in IRC network, check the message boards. Helping people is good and fullfilling thing to do, even if you don't have a (socio)political axe to grind.

  3. Re:Two critical notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> I was there, two critical notes:
    >> [...]
    >>- 80 to 90 percent of the speaches in German.

    Well, when I (as a German) go to a conference in the US I also want them all to speak German.

    *sigh*

    Dont you think its normal that they keep conferences in Germany on a German event in German?

  4. Still got to get over MS Orafice by ratfynk · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I wish it were true, but there needs to be effective software Linux training for it to succeed in North American business. I do not see any institutions teaching the Linux system as a replacement for MS Access. I can see that a logical replacement for Access is already in the Linux system itself. One could develope an integrated user multi-tasking, paging, db quiery system from what Linux already has available to root and extra Gnu sources.

    The problem is business courses at all the accredited institutions are run exclusively by Microsoft trained people.

    So until training in Linux user control, db quiery and simple software admin becomes common we here in North America will need to bow to Redmond six times a day. If we want to work in any form of business other than Inet Server Admin.

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    OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  5. Re:Two critical notes by Hiro+Antagonist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Those wouldn't all happen to be countries where a large percentage of the population speaks German (as well as their native tongues, English, and likely something else on top of that), would they?

    The conference was in Germany, hence the language should be German. Or do you think that the next Linux Expo in California should be held in Spanish as to reach a broader audience?

    This is one of the reasons I get really pissed at other Americans when I'm overseas; when I'm in Germany, I speak German -- it's only polite. Thinking that the rest of the world only exists to accomidate your linguistic needs is arrogant ethnocentrism at its worst.

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    I Hit the Karma Cap, and All I Got Was This Lousy .sig.